Note to Self - Check Those Pockets

Today we took our hiking crew across the bridge and into Washington for a new adventure.  We visited Lacamas Lake.  It was a warm day and CJ enjoyed a picnic snack, seeing the waterfalls, climbing the hills, walking across a big log, standing next to the big trees, stomping on the tree roots and rocks on the trail and playing at the park at the end.  We saw a snail curling in and out of its shell, but our camera just would not focus on it.  Daddy even saw a deer.  CJ especially enjoyed a long rest near a stream where she "fished" with a stick, found worms, dropped rocks into the water and stuffed her pockets with the special rocks she found.  

She Loves Birthdays

Today was the first celebration of CJ's birthday.  Her preschool celebrates each child's birthday either close to the actual date or close to the half-birthday date.  

Mama made some fruit sticks for her school friends:

CJ loved the sparkly crown and birthday card her friends made for her.  One of the boys even made her a necklace stuffed with fresh rosemary:

Mama and Daddy shared photos of CJ's early years and then everyone sang.  Afterwards we were able to view the plants growing from the seeds we planted during the planting party last month:

Say Uncle

First there was a visit from CJ's Uncle G (http://bungalowtwelve.blogspot.com/2009/05/visitor.html) and then today Daddy's Uncle B and Aunt L stopped at bungalow twelve for the night.  CJ loves having visitors and showing off her yard, her dance moves, her room and even explaining how she is 3 and 11/12.

Happy Memorial Day

All weekend we have been talking about going for a hike.  We finally made it out today.  We didn't even have to go out of the city to get a nice hike in.  We took Nature Girl back to Forest Park.  Here she is planning her route:

Goofing around by a little waterfall:

And showing off her finds - a new rock and a "bone" from the trail (complete with a scraped up elbow that didn't come from the hike, but rather from trying to perform a dance at the stone house that was our turnaround point):

This is how the SUN makes us feel...

We are very happy to have started the long weekend with a sunny day.  After walking the puppies, we continued on to the neighborhood school for some time on the playground.  Here's CJ after she "climbed" a tree (with some help from Daddy).  Let's hope the sun stays for a long, long time.

Holiday Weekend Plans

CJ is excited that Daddy will be home for 3 days this weekend.  Today she told me her plans - we are going to have two fun days and one work day.  She'd like to have her birthday on one of the fun days and go swimming at the Big Blue Slide pool the other.  I'm not sure what work we have in front of us.

What an Idea, Ikea

Today we met some friends at IKEA.  We waited a few minutes until there was room for CJ and her buddy to enter the playroom.  Free child care for an hour while I meandered through the showroom with the other mama.  When the hour was up we had a nice snack in the food court and wandered through the store looking for bargains.  Not a bad way to spend a rainy day.

Butterfly Girl

Butterfly girl loves dressing up and showing off her special powers.

Gone Fishing

Not quite the photo you were expecting?  Today CJ was invited to a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese.  It was our first time visiting the mouse and I bet she'll ask to go again.  Once inside we received some tokens and she slowly warmed up to the craziness with a ride on a Clifford toy.  We tried skee-ball and a game where she "squashed spiders" by stepping on buttons as they lit up.  Her favorite thing was the fishing game and somehow her random tapping on the button proved pretty successful.  She loved seeing how many tickets she won and pulling them out after each game.  A cupcake, juice box and some prizes (a sparky pinky/purply comb and a heart bracelet) and she was hooked...

Stumptown

Another sunny day.  CJ donned one of her fancy dresses and when Uncle G wanted to go to breakfast, we knew we had to get him a cup of Stumptown coffee, so we headed to the bakery.  Luckily there is a playground across the street so we had a chance to stretch after the yummy meal.  Thanks, Uncle G.

A Visitor

Today Uncle G met CJ for the first time.  She was pretty excited to hear he was coming.  Since it was nice out, she was able to spend some time showing him her sand box.  We also showed him CJ's favorite pizza and ice cream joint.  Little B was even on pretty good behavior after she gave him a good sniffing.

Terrible Twos?!?

Maybe she was tired after a playgroup date at the mall and running up and down the street with a neighbor in the middle of our dog walk.  Or are the almost fours worse than the terrible twos, which weren't so terrible around here from what Mama can remember?

Dinner ended in an eruption because CJ wanted unlimited amounts of orange juice over eating the beans or tomatoes on her plate.  We tried to move the madness into bath time, which is where she wanted Mama to polish her toenails red.  Mama said "Maybe tomorrow" and the tears returned.  Even though the bath was already run, Mama suggested that maybe she just go to bed if she was so tired.  CJ couldn't fathom this.  "But my hair needs to be washed.  It's so stinky.  For real!  Live."

We moved on to the bath and she had another good one-liner.  This time a cute one.  She didn't want her feet washed.  I explained that we needed to because her feet can get sweaty in her shoes.  She then stated that "We should move our house to the beach.  We should just pick it up and move it to the beach."  I guess that then she wouldn't need to wear sweaty shoes?

It's like this all the time.  Up and down, up and down.

Happy Mother's Day

We had a quiet day.  Dog walk, run (quick stop at bakery to pick up white chocolate croissant), park, dinner.  CJ and Daddy got Mama some nice flowers and cards and sweets.  

Here's CJ posing with a friend at the park.  There's a great play structure there and it might make a nice spot for a birthday party.  If only we could get the weather forecast a month at a time to make sure we won't be dealing with rain or 100-degree temps.

Garden Girl

She's back.  And look at her tricky watering skills.  In the heat of the day yesterday, we picked up a couple of tomato plants and today we put them into the ground.  Let's hope the weather cooperates.  Again we tried the Isis Candy ones that were so yummy last year and we also planted some yellow pear tomatoes.  The middle of the bed contains some bean stalks that were started at CJ's school.

Sunny Saturday

We finally had a warm, sunny day.  We spent most of it outside working in the yard.  Working so hard that we didn't remember to bring the camera out and take pictures.  CJ played in her sandbox and Mama and Daddy tried to tackle the weeds.  We are ready for summer weather to be here every day!

She's a Girly Girl

CJ has a new routine and it involves changing her clothes at least once a day.  She can't get herself dressed in the morning, but she can sure root through her drawers and re-dress herself in the afternoon.  Sometimes more than once.  Today she came home from school and changed into her sandbox clothes, but then she got sandy so she had to switch them again.  And, sometimes she tries something on and doesn't like it so it goes into the hamper because it is "dirty".  I wonder how much laundry we'll have by the time she is a teenager...

Comparisons

CJ's noticing the world around here and there are lots of comparisons.  Today we met a friend for an indoor gymnastics park and CJ said "My head is bigger than hers."  She even let the little girl's mom know.

This afternoon she wanted to play one of her favorite games - "baby".  She told me I could pretend I was the Daddy because I was taller than she was.  She'd be the Mommy.

Oh Me, Oh My, Oh May Faire

Today was CJ's first May Faire celebration with her preschool.  We got rained out of the usual country setting, but another family graciously offered their yard in town and we lucked out with sun for the event.  There was a yummy potluck, a play (CJ was one of the flowers) and a May pole dance.  Unfortunately, Mommy put the camera battery in the charger overnight and forgot it at home, so no photos...

Traditions

One of our family traditions is the annual dog walk for a local humane society.  Each year it is a bit different with the weather, the number of dogs and now CJ as she ages.    The starting park has been greatly improved over the years and it includes a farmers market and a fun playground that CJ enjoyed after the walk today.

Here she is meeting a miniature pony before the walk:

The walk goes along the Columbia River and it is fun to see all the different breeds of dogs.  There are so many more chocolate labs than there were 12-13 years ago.  This year we decided to split up almost halfway through the walk.  The boys (Daddy and Big B) took a rest and headed back to the park and the girls continued on.  Little B thought she was going to go for a swim, but we skipped that today.  CJ was a trooper and almost made it to the halfway point for the long walk before we turned back to meet the boys.  It's 3 miles - I bet she'll make it next year.

Here she is celebrating her achievement with her puppies after a well deserved chocolate milk at Starbucks.  (This one had some outdoor heaters that were a nice touch).